been weightlifting for a year more or less. (training at home with kettlebell when gyms are closed)
My working weights:
SQ 240
BP 160
DL 305
My goal is to continue weightlifting on 1000cal/day deficit until i reach 175lb and hopefully increase strength.
Few questions:
Is it realistic to be under 10% bodyfat by the end of my journey?!
Should i decrease calorie deficit once im closer to 15-20%?
Also, is it a good idea to do a cycle during my cut or it’s better to wait until im fit, considering it will be my first Testosterone cycle?!
At least wait until you have learned to train and diet. I don’t see in the results of your work that you have figured that out well enough to cycle. I am not trying to be a dick here. I think you will lose most of your gains after your cycle if you do it.
I would do the opposite. I would run a smaller deficit now when weight loss is easier, then when you get sub 20% and it gets a bit harder, lower the calories a bit more.
I have to agree with the first two responses. Test will not make you leaner all on its own. You must be in a caloric deficit. With that said, it is hard to know what 1000 cal deficit is if you don’t know your maintenance cals. A 1000 cal defecit will make a lot of people quit very quickly. Unless you’re a veteran dieter (like a real veteran dieter, not just constantly saying you’re “going to eat better”) I wouldn’t recommend more than a 500 cal/day deficit. At 500 cals/day deficit I dropped 24 lbs in 14 weeks (~1.7 lbs/wk) and that was tough to stick with.
After about three months of a 1,000kcal deficit you’re going to learn the hard way about metabolic adaptation. You’ll stall, get frustrated, then come back here with a cycle outlined that you think will get you the rest of the way there. And maybe it will. But it’ll be a lot harder and way more stress than is necessary to put on your body.
Start with less of a deficit. You’re going to need to ramp up continuously anyway as you start to shed fat. You’ll need more activity (read: LISS cardio) and even less food than before. It will suck. I’m currently not losing weight at 1,800kcal a day. My maintenance should be at least 500 above that, but it’s not because my metabolism is more fucked than a teenager on Epstein’s 727. Go slowly or else you’re wind up spinning your wheels and looking for the right drug combo to get yourself unstuck.
What others have said here is on the money. Take it slow and steady. Start with a moderate reduction in calories, aim to lose 1.5 pounds a week. As you get leaner and weight loss slows, reduce calories further but slowly and start to incorporate cardio.
Going too fast will only lengthen the journey. You may lose the first 10% quicker but as metabolic adaption does it’s thing there’s only so many calories you can reduce to keep losing weight.
I’ve found its better to prime your body for the deficit by eating maintainence for a week or 2 before reducing calories.
I feel like eating is an unpleasant experience where I have to balance the forces of hunger and the desire to get more lean. So every bite of food is this sort of game of chicken. It’s wildly unhealthy and I hate it beyond explanation.
That definitely does sound unpleasant.
How low are you going with bf% ? How are you spreading out those cals over the day?
I honestly don’t think I could handle eating that little.